Latin Texts & Translations

In treating, first of wines, ^[Note] and then of trees, ^[Note] we have stated that resin is the produce of the trees above-mentioned, and have described the several varieties of it, and the countries in which they are respectively produced. There are two principal kinds of resin, the dry and the liquid. ^[Note] The dry resins are extracted from the pine ^[Note] and the pitch-tree, ^[Note] the liquid from the terebinth, ^[Note] the larch, ^[Note] the lentisk, ^[Note] and the cypress; ^[Note] these last producing it in the province of Asia and in Syria. It is an error ^[Note] to suppose that the resin of the pitch- tree is the same as that of the larch; for the pitch-tree yields an unctuous ^[Note] resin, and of the same consistency as frankincense, while that of the larch is thin, like honey in colour, and of a powerful odour. It is but very rarely that medical men make use of liquid resin, and when they do, it is mostly that produced by the larch, which is administered in an egg for

cough and ulcerations of the viscera. The resin of the pine, too, is far from extensively used, and that of the other kinds is always boiled ^[Note] before use: on the various methods of boiling it, we have enlarged at sufficient length already. ^[Note]

As to the produce of the various trees, the resin of the terebinth is held in high esteem, as being the most odoriferous and the lightest, the kinds ^[Note] which come from Cyprus and Syria being looked upon as the best. Both these kinds are the colour of Attic honey; but that of Cyprus has more body, and dries with greater rapidity. In the dry resins the qualities requisite are whiteness, purity, and transparency: but whatever the kind, the produce of mountainous ^[Note] districts is always preferred to that of champaign countries, and that of a north- eastern aspect to that of any other quarter. Resins ^[Note] are dissolved in oil as a liniment and emollient cataplasm for wounds; but when they are used as a potion, bitter almonds ^[Note] are also employed. The curative properties of resins consist in their tendency to close wounds, to act as a detergent upon gatherings and so disperse them, and to cure affections of the chest.

The resin of the terebinth * * * it is used too, warmed, as a liniment for pains in the limbs, the application being removed after the patient has taken a walk in the sun. Among slave-dealers too, there is a practice of rubbing the bodies of the slaves with it, which is done with the greatest care, as a corrective for an emaciated appearance; the resin having the property of relaxing the skin upon all parts of the body, and rendering it more capable of being plumped out by food. ^[Note]

Next after the resin of the terebinth comes that of the

lentisk; ^[Note] it possesses astringent properties, and is the most powerful diuretic of them all. The other resins are laxative to the bowels, promote the digestion of crudities, allay the violence of inveterate coughs, and, employed as a fumigation, disengage the uterus of foreign ^[Note] bodies with which it is surcharged: they are particularly useful too as neutralizing the effects of mistletoe; and, mixed with bull suet and honey, they are curative of inflamed tumours and affections of a similar nature. The resin of the lentisk is very convenient as a bandoline for keeping stubborn eyelashes in their place: it is useful also in cases of fractures, suppurations of the ears, and prurigo of the generative organs. The resin of the pine is the best of them all for the cure of wounds in the head.